This mediterranean vegetable pasta sauce recipe is so versatile and can be used in many different dishes or simply enjoyed on its own with pasta. Packed with six vegetables, it's healthy and low in calories. Made with onions, red peppers, courgettes, aubergines, tomatoes and spinach, it's full of mediterranean flavour.

pasta sauce served over rigatoni with fresh basil leaves — Serve with pasta or use as the sauce in lots of other recipes

I often make a batch of this mediterranean pasta sauce and freeze it as it's a great standby. If you're looking for a hidden veg tomato sauce, when my kids were little I made this alot and blitzed the veg so there were no lumps. It was a great way to make sure they were eating enough vegetables. Nowadays, I just blitz half of it and leave nice chucks of veg in the other half. This helps to enhance the flavour. A homemade pasta sauce is really very easy and so much cheaper and healthier than shop bought ones.

Recipes to use this sauce in

You can use this pasta sauce in lots of different recipes or just enjoy on it's own. I often freeze it in individual portions in jam jars to serve with pasta. I also use it in some of these other recipes.

Cooking a batch

A tomato pasta sauce is a great recipe for cooking a batch and if possible I would always recommend doing this. It's a great standby and cooking a batch saves on energy costs. In the recipe card, you can easily double or treble the recipe quantities. As always, you only need enough liquid to just cover the vegetables so may not need to double or treble the quantity of passata. When making a batch, I find it easier to cook in the oven for 30 minutes at 180°C / 360°F / gas mark 4. Place everything in an oven proof dish, cover with a lid and place in the oven.

How to make your own pasta sauce

chopped onion courgette pepper aubergine — Step 1

Add the olive oil to a large pan and gently fry the onion until soft.
Add the peppers, courgette and aubergine and fry for 5 minutes.
Stir the passata into the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in the spinach and simmer for 1 minutes. Blitz some or all of the sauce together if required. This is a great way to 'hide' the vegetables if you need to, but also gives it a lovely flavour.
Serve with pasta

Variations

The six vegetables make this pasta sauce really substantial. However, if you want to make it go further, you could add chickpeas or kidney beans to the sauce. Serve it with grated parmesan cheese or diced feta for a stronger flavour. It also goes well with halloumi cheese.

Sustainability

All of the vegetables in this mediterranean pasta sauce can be bought organic. Although you can buy them all year round, they are in season in the summer and the flavour is so much better. Try to buy the vegetables loose to minimise single-use plastic. If you need to buy in packets, don't let any extra go to waste, just add them in. As it's a sauce, it may change the balance of flavours slightly, but will still taste good.

Storage

A tomato pasta sauce will keep in the fridge for 3 - 4 days. It freezes well and will keep for 3 - 4 months. After that time it will still be safe to eat, but over time the quality and texture may change. I freeze this in individual portions in re-used glass jam jars. It can easily be defrosted in the microwave in the glass jar.

Any leftover cooked pasta can also be frozen. Leave the pasta to cool then stir through a little olive oil so it doesn't all stick together. Place the pasta in an airtight container or freezer bag and store for up to 2 months. To re-heat, just place in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes.